I have been reading a lot of material on Voigt’s archived boards lately – an excellent way to read up on many aspects of the case. These old threads are really a resource – and an interesting piece of Internet forum history too (incredible how fast time flies).
Anyway, I’ve been taking notes along the way – and one of the things I noted was this: several posters refer to "anti-detection" literature from the 1960s, i.e. books on how to disguise yourself, throw the cops off your scent, confuse "The Man" by leaving behind…fake clews..and so forth.
This seems to be brought up especially in regard to Bruce Davis and the Manson connection. I’m not all that interested in that angle myself (not dismissing it – but it’s not top of the list for me) but the idea that Z may have read some of this "anti-detection" literature is interesting, I think. I think it’s plausible that Z was a bit of an autodidact, someone who sat in his basement (not literally – he may never have owned a basement) and read books on various subjects, gathering knowledge which he then availed himself of when doing his "thing".
What I would like to know is this: how widespread was this kind of literature? Is there anything in particular one might/should check out?
Hopefully one of our older and wiser members (who were around in the 60s, perhaps, or who have been on this track themselves at one point) can help me with some input.
Norse
I am pretty convinced Z was into disguises. There are several fairly obvious indicators. The fact that he alludes to it in a letter at least suggests that disguises are on his mind. And while I think there’s a lot more to the LB costume, I can’t help but think the disguise aspect is one of his reasons for wearing it. Then there’s the issue with the glasses. Mageau says Z wasn’t wearing any, yet he was surely wearing them in PH. It also explains the discrepancies in the descriptions. All of this makes me think it’s plausible that the guy could have went as far as to stuff his clothes to look more barrel-chested, and worn wigs. I mentioned in another thread how I find something striking about Fouke’s comment about Z’s hair graying in the back. It could be a toupee or a bad wig. Even the wingwalkers and their size could be a diversion.
I’ve been doing some light digging into this. One thing which seems clear enough is that there would have been plenty of books available to Z regarding methods for disguising your handwriting. If he was into such things and had a library card I imagine he could have gotten some useful tips with little effort: using the wrong hand (obviously), writing with unnatural pressure (less obvious – does the evidence suggest something like that?), choosing "unnatural" words, i.e. words you wouldn’t normally use (can’t find a specific reference to purposely misspelling words), even more outlandish methods such as writing upside down and using a mirror. All of these tricks were known and documented by the 1950s at the very latest, from what I can gather.
Still looking for specific literature on disguising your physical appearance. It would seem that the more obvious tricks, such as wearing multiple layers of clothes to appear heavier, using inlays to add to your height, wearing the wrong size shoes, putting on a pair of glasses, wearing a wig…and so on, were well known and documented. But I haven’t found a particular book which deals with this – which Z might conceivably have read.
The latter may be a perfectly useless thing, be it said – as these things are obvious. Anyone with a grain of imagination could have figured out this without reading it in a book. But still. If such a book existed, was readily available and perhaps even a "hit" with, say, counter culture types back in the 60s…I’d consider this at least somewhat interesting. I keep thinking Z may have been a part of that scene – or rather that he may have been around that scene, as an outsider looking in, perhaps.
